Video conference systems for exchanging video, audio, and the like with another party at a remote site have become proliferated in recent years along with development of networks and the like.
Video conference systems have a problem that a speaker has feelings of anxiety during speech because it is difficult to determine whether the speaker's voice is carried to the other party at appropriate volume. Solutions to this problem include a method of displaying a level meter or the like indicating volume of the speaker's voice on a screen.
For example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-186870 is a configuration in which a local terminal, which is a terminal at a local site, receives information about speaker volume (a volume level of output audio) of a remote terminal transmitted from the remote terminal installed at a remote site, displays the information on a screen, and also displays microphone volume (a volume level of input audio) and speaker volume of the local terminal on the screen.
Disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-226800 is a configuration in which speaker-volume setting information about a remote terminal is transmitted to a local terminal.
However, the configurations disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-186870 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-226800 have a problem that when the remote terminal is different in configuration from the local terminal, the speaker-volume information about the remote terminal cannot be acquired from the remote side. Put another way, there is a problem that they are applicable only when the remote terminal and the local terminal are similar in configuration.
Therefore, there is a need for a multipoint connection apparatus that allows each of video/audio terminals to display microphone volume of the points separately, and a communication system.